In the Land of Women: A Place to Be or to Run From?

In The Land of Women is a title that could sound like Heaven or Hell for a man reading it. In terms of entertainment value, how did this ever so manly reviewer find it to be?

In The Land of Women was written and directed by Jon Kasdan with a cast comprised of Adam Brody, Meg Ryan, Kristen Stewart, Olympia Dukakis, and Elena Anaya. The plot follows a young male writer after a relationship ends in heartbreak and he decides to leave behind the fast pace world of Hollywood and his soft-core porn plotting job to stay with his Grandma who is in need of care thanks to dementia. His getaway however lands him in more emotional drama as he meets and falls for an older woman dealing with cancer and her young daughter dealing with high school romance. (this is all of course on top of the Grandma who seems to have some screws loose)

Adam Brody is not much of a leading man in the traditional sense. However, I think this film captured the characters in a realistic sense from both the views of Brody's character and the younger set present within the film. Basically I am meaning to comment on the acting here, and saying for Brody: not the greatest, but not the worst. Meg Ryan and company bring in the Lifetime network style of acting as well, however I will say Kristen Stewart continues to shine for me. The young actress, Stewart, plays Ryan's daughter and this is her second performance that I found slightly captivating for some reason; the previous was a awful spooky flick called The Messengers.

As a guy approaching this obvious "chick flick" meant to appeal perhaps to sensitive dudes as well, I must say I was entertained through almost all of it. The ending really wasn't there for me with nothing interesting and nothing new, and no profound discovery or anything for any of the characters really, at least not by entertainment standards. However, the fact that my attention was held up until the end is something positive.

In the Land of Women is a movie worthy of a rental if you are looking for some drama mixed with some chick flick romance and an attempt at a coming-of-age self discovery plot that isn't especially groundbreaking, but does the job well enough.